How to give the client a price that won't scare him/her away?

Hi. I have a client that wants me to design, set up, and tweak wordpress + SEO.

I don't know what her budget is. She owns a piano concert room and has three offices/schoolrooms around the city to teach kids piano. I want to set a price but I am afraid it is too high and will scare her away.

So how do I go about deciding what price to charge? I am located in the US. If it helps, I am planning to charge $680 and these are some of the main tasks. Most of the time taken up will be transferring the information from the old site to the new site.

 

Just try to be honest about it and relay the honesty to the client. They won't run away if they realize the price you give them is the price they need for their services. If they can't pay for that much, so be it. Offer them a cheaper solution but warn them that it won't be as much as they need. If you were honest, then they'll see that after using the cheaper service and most likely upgrade. Hope this helps.

 

I would recommend discussing budget first with the client. This way you can see what you have to work with. If the budget is less than what you estimated, you can then determine what her priorities are and develop a quote based on your clients most important needs and within her budget.

 

some service might not only for one time service and mostly is need go for long term like SEO and web design service.
You can divide it to monthly or daily to make them feel that one day jsut few dollar and it worth to paid it while they get back is might 100 times compare to what they spend with you .
Beside that you might think of installments plan for them which also a way that to change their minded toward expensive products.

 

You have a few good suggestions there. I agree, set up a couple of options for your clients, either she can pay and bulk, pay in terms, or if you can exchange professional service for a better long-term relationship to give her a discount then you can do that too. Just be honest and upfront, most clients dont understand the complexity of putting up a site and making it successful, so you need to explain it in layman and be upfront but not too snobbish... Just tell her like it is and lay it out...

 

You should set your prices so that you make a reasonable profit for each service you provide. You should not be setting your prices based on the customer. You may want to offer more services to a customer who can afford more, but not simply charge higher prices.

$680 seems reasonable for what she is asking you to do.

 

A lot of what you guys said is true but most of the time the client does not know what their budget is or how much they should be spending. I don't want to mark too high because they might claim I ripped them off to others later. Word of mouth is something that returns a high referral rate for me.

Also, here is a recent project from the same client, any thoughts?

 

Well I think it is always a better approach to understand the nature of the client first. If you know the thinking process of the client then you can try to buy a particular product or service without scaring them. Always remember that the client is come there to buy so you just need to sell what they want and at a price that works for both the parties.

 

Offer her 3 different package options: minimum, moderate and best.
List down the differences per package to give her reasonable quotes per service provided, and the option to choose one she can afford. It won't scare her away if she is provided with a package that is within her budget, but at the same time giving her the option to avail the best service if she can afford your $680 fee.

 

She's given me specifically what she wants - I'm not sure how I would be able to offer her different packages - could you please specify?

 

You got to set your standards. Do not mould the pricing according to the clients. For instance if you find out that a client is rich, you ask him a very high price and via versa for others. If you think the price is right, you should go for it.

 

I think firstly you need to talk with her to build up business relationship. Just ask her about her store, her plan. then gradually, it is easier to talk about the price

 

I believe you had the Talking face already... you must ask and follow the client's needs.

 

I think, you can compare your price with something.
Or, you can offer some small additions for free.

 

This is a really good example and this is what I usually do too. So take note of the way to make a good presentation with your clients.

 

@op, i know what your feeling. I recently did a website for someone, so i know what your going through, conversely ive hired people to work with me on things. The biggest thing you need to do is be able to promote yourself. If you cant justify why your worth $680, then you wont be able to charge that. If your skilled at your job and you take pride in your work then $680 is lower then what i would expect for the task your performing.

The only thing i can say is that if the person contacted you via a website just for a quote, then just give them the quote and dont worry about it. Majority of clients are likely to ask more then one place for a quote, and its up to you to be able to promote just what you can do for them and why they should choose you.

 

think you should ask every client what his/her budget BUT don't count on it that they will tell you the truth! many people/businesses have the business charachter which they will tell you a lower price than the true budget.

 

copier...!